u***r
发帖数: 4825 | 1 http://www.economist.com/news/leaders/21632477-save-promising-p
Reforms and democracy, but no rule of law
DURING two years in office Mexico’s president, Enrique Peña Nieto, has
received sharply contrasting reviews at home and abroad. Foreigners,
including The Economist, have praised his structural reforms of the economy,
which include an historic measure to open up energy to private investment (
see article). Yet polls show that most Mexicans dislike Mr Peña. Among
other things, they blame his government for a squeeze on living standards
and the interlinked problems of violent crime and corruption. Sadly, recent
events have lent support to Mr Peña’s domestic critics.
On November 8th Mexico’s attorney-general announced what almost everyone
had already concluded: that 43 students from a teacher-training college in
the southern state of Guerrero, who disappeared in the town of Iguala in
late September, had been murdered by drug-traffickers after being kidnapped
by the local police on the orders of the town’s mayor. Guerrero has been
Mexico’s most violent state for centuries. The federal government bears no
direct responsibility for these events. But Mexicans see in them a symbol of
the failure of Mr Peña’s administration to make security a priority.
Now comes a problem that is uncomfortably close to home. The government had
already opted to cancel a contract for a high-speed train that it had
hastily awarded to the sole bidder, a consortium of Chinese and Mexican
companies including a construction firm from the president’s home state. A
local journalist has revealed that the boss of the same firm owns a $7m
mansion that is the Peña family’s private residence (see article). The
president denies any wrongdoing, but a common thread runs through these
events.
Mexico only became a democracy in 2000, when seven decades of rule by the
Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), the political machine that raised
Mr Peña, were ended by electoral defeat. Unfortunately, democracy did
not bring the rule of law to Mexico. Too many in the PRI still see the job
of the police and the courts as enforcing political control, rather than
investigating mobsters. Corrupt politicians are protected rather than
punished. Organised crime and graft both remain a part of everyday life, and
neither has been helped by the drugs flowing north to the United States.
Some things have changed. The Supreme Court now operates professionally. A
41,000-strong federal police force is more capable than most of its local
counterparts. Felipe Calderón, Mr Peña’s predecessor, weakened the
drugs gangs, but at the price of a surging murder rate and unchecked abuses
by the security forces. On paper, Mr Peña has a grand crime-prevention
strategy. However his real efforts have been focused on the economy. The
murder rate may have fallen back slightly, but extortion and kidnappings
have not. Tycoons practise espionage and bribe judges. For many Mexicans,
Iguala was a reminder of the gap between justice for the poor and for the
rich.
How to end impunity
Mr Peña’s people rightly say that the rule of law cannot be imposed in
Mexico overnight. But that is no excuse for inaction today. Iguala is not
the only town where criminals run the police: in such places, the federal
government should take temporary control of the police and administration.
Mr Peña should lead an effort to clean up state police forces and local
courts. A bill to make the attorney-general’s office independent and to
create an anti-corruption agency should be fast-tracked. Federalism in
Mexico needs change, too: states and municipalities raise almost no funds of
their own and are not held to account for their spending. It is an
indictment of all three main political parties that the elements in Mr Pe&#
241;a’s reform pact to make politicians accountable have yet to be approved.
However impressive Mr Peña’s economic reforms, Mexico will never
manage to achieve its considerable potential without an honest, efficient
criminal-justice system. Its democracy will lose legitimacy if its
politicians continue to tolerate graft. Mr Peña’s domestic critics say
that he is a skin-deep moderniser, steeped in his party’s bad old ways.
Now is the time for him to prove them wrong. | a******9
发帖数: 20431 | 2 世界上绝大部分国家都这样 有民主 但是最基本的法制都没有
economy,
(
recent
【在 u***r 的大作中提到】
: http://www.economist.com/news/leaders/21632477-save-promising-p
: Reforms and democracy, but no rule of law
: DURING two years in office Mexico’s president, Enrique Peña Nieto, has
: received sharply contrasting reviews at home and abroad. Foreigners,
: including The Economist, have praised his structural reforms of the economy,
: which include an historic measure to open up energy to private investment (
: see article). Yet polls show that most Mexicans dislike Mr Peña. Among
: other things, they blame his government for a squeeze on living standards
: and the interlinked problems of violent crime and corruption. Sadly, recent
: events have lent support to Mr Peña’s domestic critics.
| d*******g
发帖数: 8992 | | r***k
发帖数: 13586 | | w******i
发帖数: 736 | 5 你给解释解释——政改前的香港和上个世纪的新加坡是怎么回事？
【在 r***k 的大作中提到】
: 民主是法治的必要条件而不是充分条件。
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